When I was in Sacramento I got to see this amazing show put on by Hi Fructose Magazine at the Crocker Art Museum. It featured the art of artists like Kehinde Wiley and Todd Schorr. It was great to see a collection of art work made in the last 10-20 years. I was very inspired. A lot of the art was conceptual and thought provoking. But some of it was just fun. As you can see from the examples below.

I’m so glad the SFMOMA is open again! My wife and I went on a mini vacation and took a day to see the new SFMOMA. I really like the new design. There is a lot of raw wood grain that gives it a warm inviting feeling. It isn’t a stark cold museum. The floor plan is nice and wide open and the art is well organized. They have a whole room dedicated to Paul Klee.

The Art of Paul Klee

Paul Klee is one of my favorite artists. His work is very whimsical and child-like. Klee expresses freedom to follow whatever idea comes to him but he executes it very thoroughly. He has great sharp line quality. He creates vibrant color schemes. His work also displays unique textures that hold your interest.

Paul Klee was a teacher at the Bauhaus a famous art school in Germany where Wassily Kandinsky also taught. He was a modern artist that dabbled in many different styles. Learn more about him on the SFMOMA website or on Wikipedia.

I’ve designed an online web app that artists can use to find the right paint color. In color theory class you learn to mix shades, tints and tones of colors. It’s a great way to learn color. However, you don’t always have all of those charts with you when you are painting. So this is a simple way to pick out colors, the app will automatically tell you the paints you need and you can save or share the results.

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The subject of, what art is, seems to have always been a topic of debate . A lot of art history is about pushing the boundaries of what art is. The impressionists broke away from the ideology that art had to look “real” or be completely finished. They wanted to capture the motion and atmosphere of a scene. They weren’t concerned with every little detail.

Wassily Kandinsky Abstract Art

Paul Cezanne and Picasso explored the notion of simplifying shapes in a painting to make a stronger composition. Henry Matisse used bright colors, that weren’t naturally there, to express emotions in his scenes. Wassily Kandinsky pioneered abstract art. He explored the idea that a painting doesn’t have to look like anything, it can be a composition of shapes, much like an instrumental song (see my post on how visual art compares to music).

Marcel Duchamp Ready Made Sculptures

And, maybe the most radical of all, Marcel Duchamp argued that a piece of art didn’t even have to be made by the artist… it could be found! He called these sculptures “readymades” and said each one was “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.”(1) My take on it is that he was showing his personality through these objects. They amused him or showed his sense of humor (especially the urinal sculpture :).

So, what is art? I think the rebellious spirit of all these artists urges us to keep the definition of art very broad. In my humble opinion I think visual art is… Something you make or find (or a combination of the two) and put on display so that people(s) lives can be enriched by viewing or experiencing it.

Art is more than just using your talents and skills. It’s about expressing your self and experimenting with things that interest you. In the end, for some pieces, only the artist knows if it is truly art.

To be an artist you need to be open… open to new ideas, open to your own thoughts and open to fails and victories on your journey.

When I first started out doing art, I lived from painting to painting. Each new painting was going to be my masterpiece! I would pour everything I had into it. I did have fun and was usually fairly happy with the piece but it was never quite as glorious as I expected. I’d post a painting on facebook and get 20+ likes… then post another and get 5! Was I getting worse?

While taking an art history class and studying the lives of artists, it dawned on me that most of them weren’t concerned with that one big dynamite piece. They were interested in experimentation… in learning something as they painted or did other art forms.

One of the most obvious examples of this is an artist named Christo. He’s done projects like covering buildings with canvas and making a canvas fence that ran for miles along the coast of northern California. His projects take years!… tons of paper work, permits, planning, promoting and city meetings. But he doesn’t consider only the final project a work of art. He considers the whole process a work of art. In an interview Cristo says… “Jeanne-Claude and I, we do these things for ourselves. If somebody likes it, it’s only a bonus. We do things we enjoy visually. But you should understand, the work is not in the results. The journey is the work—it’s incredible.”(1)

Another example is Marcel Duchamp’s piece titled “Large Glass”. He worked on this piece from 1915 to 1923. The “canvas” of the piece is a large pane of glass. The “paint” used on the piece is mostly dust! Over time the dust would collect. He would then varnish the part of the dust he wanted to keep and clear the rest. The piece was even dropped by movers. Duchamp put it back together and pronounced the piece finished! This obviously was very time consuming but turned out amazing.

So the lessoned learned was that art wasn’t just a pinnacle you reach. It isn’t that huge glorious painting you crank out after a couple years of practice. Art is a life long journey and experience. By thinking of it like this you can relax and enjoy. Maybe a work didn’t turn out like you wanted but you learned a lot for the next one. Maybe your art wasn’t excepted into the show, but you put it out there and you can get passed it and try again. Maybe you spent weeks on a little painting. Painting parts over and over but it didn’t even matter because you were having fun and you were experimenting.

I believe that art (not just visual… music, writing etc.) isn’t perfected by your talent but by your determination and love of doing it.

When I was taking art classes, one thing that I was taught totally changed the way I looked at visual art and design. It was the idea that, similar to music, art had a composition. Instead of a composition of beats, notes and tones… visual art has a composition of lines, shapes and colors. Like the rhythm of music, a lot of art pieces have a rhythm of lines and shapes. You can see this very pronounced in the dark lines that cut through the painting in “Blue Poles” by Jackson Pollock. In this image the music bar was overlayed to show the rhythm of the painting.

This idea opened up the possibilities in my mind. Painting and drawing weren’t just about rendering objects the best I could in the middle of the canvas. It was now about creating a scene. It was about how the shapes interacted with each other.

I could create a symmetrical composition to show stability…. or I could create an asymmetrical composition with the focal point on one side to add drama and motion.

Also, like music, visual art can create a mood. Rigid shapes and contrasting colors can give a harsh exciting mood like a full rock concert. You can see this is the painting by Paul Klee below. While organic soft shapes and light analogous colors can give a calm mellow feeling like a mellow acoustic song. You can feel this in the Monet painting below. Sometimes this is even illustrated in the album art of a band.

Paul Klee – Collection of figuresMonet – Branch of the Seine near Giverny

Of course just adding calculated notes doesn’t make good music. Music comes from the heart and soul. It comes from the expression of the musician. This also carries over to visual art. Drawing shapes on a canvas doesn’t make art. Art is the expression of the artist. The mood they are feeling and the journey of exploration they are taking.

That being said… like music… it helps to practice and build your skills so that you can more accurately express yourself. 🙂

If your new and looking for things to do in Sacramento or if you have lived here for a while and want to see some awesome art and get some good coffee here is my usual journey.

1. The Verge Art Gallery and Axis Art Gallery

These galleries are conveniently in the same building. I show up about noon. It’s a great space. There are something like 20 artists with studios there (they have open studio days once in a while). The art is usually concept style art. Art that shares an idea or thought. It’s always very creative. More on the “edgy side” some would say. 🙂 The couches in the photo were set up like bleachers to listen to local music. From sculptures to installations to multimedia to paintings to photography, they have it all.

2. Insight Coffee to get caffeinated!

This is within walking distance from The Verge. A little walk gets the blood flowing. They serve great coffee. Their mocha is just right… not to sweet and nice and strong. It also has a really cool atmosphere. A post modern kind of look done really well… keeps the art theme going. 🙂

3. Atelier 20

I get back in my ride and head to the 20th and I street area. This gallery is partly an antique and jewelry store but it has a room for art exhibits. This art is more decorative then conceptual. (By the way, I enjoy both types… I believe they can both be just as expressive and intriguing.) They have had some great exhibits from landscape paintings to abstract art. The jewelery and other objects are worth checking out too.

4. b. sakata garo Art Gallery

This gallery is only a few doors down. It’s more of an upscale gallery hosting world famous artists. It features all types of visual art from sculptures to mix media to paintings and drawings. It is always very interesting. I’ve never seen 2 shows that are the same. The current show features airplane sculptures made out of many different materials and objects.

5. Viewpoint Photography Gallery

The gallery is a few blocks away but I walk… it’s down J street so there are lots of cool shops to check out. The Viewpoint Gallery is strictly photography. As far as I know it’s the only gallery in Sacramento dedicated only to Photography. They feature exhibits by world famous photographers and also group shows featuring local artists. They have very beautiful photos. A show that stands out in my memory was one that displayed photos of jazz clubs and jazz musicians… the compositions were great and really showed the mood of the scene.

6. Alex Bult Art Gallery

Finally I hike over to Alex Bult. This gallery is also pretty upscale… probably won’t be buying anything anytime soon… well maybe 🙂 … but it’s fun to look. They have some great shows. No 2 shows are the same. The current show features sculptures made out of curved strips of wood from old chairs. It is really creative and awesome.

Note: There are many many other art galleries in Sacramento that have great art. I would love to eventually write about them all… but for now this is my usual route… but I’m always searching for new galleries and exhibitions.

Let me know if you have a suggestion for an art gallery I should go to… or if you have your own list I would love to post it and link to your site. 🙂 jtcampbellart@gmail.com

Cezanne is a famous Post-Impressionist French painter considered to be the father of modern art. Pablo Picasso considered him to be his painting father. Henry Matisse owned one of his bather paintings and wouldn’t sell it no matter how hard times got. Matisse later donated it to a museum for others to be inspired by. That is how renowned the great painter Paul Cezanne became.

One of my favorite artists Wassily Kandinky had his 146th birthday today. He lives on through his many beautiful and innovative paintings. I discovered this thanks to google.

His early work could be classified as expressionism using bright colors to show the feelings of a landscape. His later work is more abstract.

In fact he is the one that invented abstract. Legend has it that after he had went home his cleaning lady who cleaned his studio accidentally put his painting back on the easle upside down! When Kandinsky returned he found his painting upside down and actually liked it better. This opened his eyes to the notion that a painting could be a work of art with our having any recognizable objects.

In addition to this he was a teacher at the Bauhaus a mecca for art and design in the 20’s and 30’s. Other teachers included Paul Klee.